Best POS For Water Parks:The 5 Most Important Features

More than many businesses, the success of a water park is largely determined by the guest experience. It’s critical to keep the lines at your gate and on each ride moving quickly. You also need to provide additional amenities, such as quick-service restaurants, gift shops, and game kiosks.

Making the experience as carefree and convenient as possible is your best recipe for success. A major part of this equation relies on great point of sale. A great solution can make your business run more efficiently, allowing more guests in your gates and ensuring that they will return soon. So let’s look exactly at how your POS can make your water park successful with the 5 most important POS features for water parks.

1. Prepaid Payments with Waterproof Wristbands

Starting the experience at the gate; you’ll need a water park point of sale that can print wristband tickets. They need to print quickly and be easily attachable. Of course, you’ll also need waterproof wristbands that are durable, easy to scan, and non-transferable. Some parks might prefer to use cards with barcodes instead of wristbands. These are typically more durable, though less convenient. Your POS system should be able to print either type.

You might also want to print different wristbands or membership cards to distinguish individuals by group, age, or height. Having a POS system that can do this accurately and automatically is vital for getting customers moving through your front gates and into the park quickly. Additionally, you can print wristbands that signify equipment rentals such as strollers or innertubes, or varying levels of access to specific areas of the park. Features such as these allow employees to easily identify problematic behavior.

Consider using custom wristbands for branding purposes. Many children wear their wristbands after leaving the water park and are likely to start a conversation about how much fun they had. An eye-catching logo or park name on a wristband can be another way to advertise.

2. Durable POS Hardware and Turnstiles

First, you’ll need reliable, sturdy POS hardware. Water parks tend to have a lot of water. And water can be a disaster for the typical point of sale computer or tablet. You’ll need a solution that can handle the elements.

You’ll also need turnstiles at your main entrance and at the entrances to certain rides. Turnstiles help organize customers into single-file lines and act as a deterrent to any unauthorized entrants. These turnstiles must be integrated into your POS system, helping to ensure that only valid entries are granted. They also act as your inventory management, counting the number of guests entering and making sure you maintain safe levels of guests.

They must also allow for easy entry so that your long lines move quickly. Portable turnstiles might give certain parks the flexibility of adjusting how many are open at any given time in different locations. Other water parks would benefit from automatic turnstiles that unlock with a swipe or scan of a barcode. These free up employees to manage other areas of the park.

There is a large array of point of sale hardware options available to water parks, so it’s important to find the best turnstiles for your needs. And whichever you select, the most important thing is that they integrate with your water park POS solution.

3. High-Speed POS with Specific Water Park Niche Features

Most importantly, every water park needs a fast POS system. No matter how fun your rides are, most people aren’t willing to deal with insane lines. You can’t afford to have a POS system that loses your customers for your business. Get a cloud-based water park POS that never goes down, and processes each transaction within seconds.

For any retailer, it’s also important to have certain niche features. Water parks are no exception. Aside from being able to administer and print tickets, you’ll also need one that can break down ticket types by age, weight, height, entry-level, school group, or any other specification that you want to implement. Advanced ticketing saves you time and money and keeps your park organized.

4. Integration with Your Webshop and Other Verticals

At this point, it’s essential for every business to have an online store. And you must have a POS system that integrates with your eCommerce platform. Your water park webshop might sell souvenirs, advanced ticketing, group packages, or branded gear. People expect to have the convenience of buying online.

You also need to be able to sell everything in your water park under the same system. This means having a POS that can work for your ticketing, gift shop or convenience store, kiosks, and quick service restaurant. An all-in-one solution keeps your sales and inventory organized and leaves you far less room for costly errors.

5. Season Passes and Gift Cards

Most water parks thrive off of selling season passes. Your POS should be able to handle advanced ticketing options. Passes must be easily printed and reliably redeemed upon each visit to the park.

KORONA partners with several loyalty programs that make season passes, group rates, school discounts, etc., easy to implement and track. These rewards platforms can help power highly effective amusement park marketing campaigns.

You also might consider implementing a gift card program. KORONA also integrates with various gift card printers to allow you to cheaply print gift cards that can be swiped at each terminal.

Your #1 Water Park Point of Sale Solution

KORONA’s advanced POS software was designed specifically for water parks and advanced ticketing businesses. To find out more about KORONA POS or any of our integrations, click below to sign up for a free trial and a demo with one of our great team members.